Good Morning All. Mostly clear and 76°, 88% humidity and no wind. Another 0.25" of rain in the gauge from a thunderstorm yesterday at about 2:30 in the afternoon. That helped reduce the grassfire risk from the fireworks last night. Bubba and his friends next door went all out last night, starting around 9:00. My other neighbor Jim, must have been out of town, since there wasn't the usual display there. I watched for about 30 minutes and went to bed. Without my hearing aids, it was all a muted rumble outside, that I couldn't hear inside the house. The only real joy of wearing the darn things. The rain yesterday was not in the forecast, but it is likely to happen any afternoon in early July here.
I made the trip to Dallas yesterday and exchanged the granddogs for my wife. Doggies were glad to be at their respective homes and I think that my wife was thrilled to see me. I did leave the food supply for one of the dogs back home, but my SIL knew that they were low anyway and Amazon delivered a new bag just before I got there. He and my daughter live by Amazon. I have observed the Amazon delivery truck on their street before. He parks in front of the corner house and delivers to 3-4 houses, then moves the truck about 60 yards and repeats. Then another 60-70 yards and delivers to 3-4 more homes, and so on until the end of the block. Even the fire station on the other corner gets a stop.
First order of business this morning is to fix one of the "shade" umbrellas over the pool that was toppled by the wind during yesterday's thunderstorm. It appears to be undamaged, it just jiggled the concrete blocks loose and flipped on it's side. Between the cloudy weekend and the umbrellas, the water temperature has dropped to 85° since Friday. The air temperature in the upper 90's makes no difference, it's the direct sunlight that warms it up.
Then it's a few other outdoor chores once the dew evaporates before commencing with the tomato processing. My goal today is 7 quarts of simple tomato sauce, which is one load for the pressure canner. That should use around 35# of tomatoes, maybe 25% of what I have that is ready. Spaghetti sauce is to be done Friday since I need additional mushrooms to go with the onions and garlic that I already have. I could always make it without the mushrooms and add them later if needed.
Re: Covid - Never had it and neither did my wife. Why??? Was it the two Moderna shots and one booster??? Were we just careful enough??? Do we both have the proper antibodies??? Or was it a combination of all of the above??? Or did either of us get it and just didn't know??? We self-tested a few times and were also tested at a lab and every test came back negative. All of my local kids, their husbands, and all three local grandkids got it, some of them more than once, but by then it was the milder form. I credit home-grown veggies and imported beer. While I do tetanus and pneumonia vaccines, I have never had a flu shot and never had the flu. Just my experience.
OK, I got off my ass out in the train shed yesterday. I started by commencing the next quarterly layout section cleaning on section three of the upper level. Yesterday, I inspected the tracks for any stray parts that may have fallen off rolling stock and found none. I then vacuumed the main line and will do the passing sidings and industrial spurs next.
I also picked out my next project from the never ending list of small "improvements needed". I have a hobo camp that needs a bit of upgrading, and it needs more vegetation to make it more secluded or hidden.
Looks like Jake is falling over on the left side while checking his backpack.
Clearly visible from town.
Tom O - Good luck with your electricity.
Today is National Bikini Day. Please don't post pictures of yourselves in bikinis.
Everybody have a great day.
